Page 76 of One Last Chance

“Don’t look at me like that. We’ve known each other for three days. Three. And I kissed you like you’d just come back from war or something.”

“Looked at me that way too.”

“You’re not helping!”

“Yeah, I am.” He stood up. “I’m helping you see that maybe there is something else—for both of us—if you have a little faith.” He took a step toward her. “Listen, Sparrow, three days is forever in the rescue world. Every minute is life and death. Three days is an eternity.” He took another step.

She swallowed but didn’t move.

“There’s a reason that you were on the other end of that radio,” he said, his voice lowering. “And if you believe in God, like I do, then you have to believe it there was a purpose.”

“Maybe to save your life.”

“And yours.”

She nodded. He took another step, close enough to put a hand under her chin, to lift it.

“And I think you keep saving it, Flynn.”

She wet her lips, and his gaze caught on it, stirring the flame inside that didn’t need any more fanning.

She stepped back. Put her hand on his chest. “I have a life in Minneapolis. A job. A family. I’m the only child left, and my parents need me and . . .”

“Hey, hey—” He took a step toward her, but she matched it and stepped back.

“Okay. I won’t chase you down.” He stood there, his hands at his sides. “But, Flynn, I?—”

“What did you mean, I keep saving your life?”

He drew in a breath. Looked out at the river shaded in the dusky after-midnight light. Back to her. “When I was a kid, about ten years old, I was in town. It was summer, and I was throwing sticks into the river, down at the park. There were some families there, and suddenly I looked up and there was this kid playing in the water. Maybe six years old. He fell and the current grabbed him, and there was no one else around—or I didn’t see anyone—so I went in after him. He was already struggling, but I grew up on the river. I started kayaking when I was about his age, so I knew how to read it, what to do. I caught up to him at an eddy, and then a few grownups were there and they got us out. And then, suddenly, I was the town hero, and . . . I got it in my head that I could save people.”

He looked back at her, and she hadn’t moved, listening again, like she did.

“And then . . . I lost that feeling.”

“When Aven died.”

“Yes.”

“And you tried to get it back in the Coast Guard.”

He lifted a shoulder.

“Then you lost yourself.”

Huh. “Maybe, whatever. But when I’m with you . . . I guess . . . I feel like I’ve found me again. Or at least pieces of me. And not because I saved you or you saved me?—”

“Let’s be honest. You saved yourself, Axel.”

He cocked his head. “If we’re really honest, God saved me. But maybe that’s it. You make me feel like that guy—the guy I thought I was—is back. Like Rose did for Jack. You make me feel like I can be more.”

His voice softened. “Maybe you are Rose. You make it worth it to stay in the water. And wow, that sounded stupid.”

“Yeah, that’s a real mess.” Then she shook her head, took two steps toward him, and put her arms around his neck. Pulled him down to her. “I’m in such big trouble.”

And then she kissed him.

Oh wow, did she kiss him. She was a wave, crashing over him, sweeping through him, taking him with her into the kiss. She smelled amazing—she’d taken a shower in the basement guest bathroom and her hair was still a little wet—and he wove his hands into all those copper tangles before wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her closer. Fitting her perfectly against him.

---